Guatemala's poor getting poorer

According to a recent report, Guatemala is the only country in the region where the poor have been getting poorer. In 2012, the poorest 40 percent of the country's people lived on $1.50 per day. That is worse than 2003 when the bottom 40 percent lived on $1.60 per day.

Last I read poverty had improved to where only 51 percent of the population had lived in poverty but then increased again following the global economic and food crises as well as insecurity, natural disasters, and other issues more specific to Guatemala. (Poverty in Guatemala, Poverty decreased by twenty percentage points - that's good, right?)

Go take a look at the brief article. No need for me to summarize it all here. However, what was really disappointing was the concluding paragraph.

According to World Bank simulations, if Guatemala's rate of growth were to rise to 5 percent over the next three years, by 2016 the poverty rate could fall by an additional 1 percentage point, thereby allowing 160,000 more Guatemalans to escape poverty.

I haven't read anything that indicates 5 percent over the next three years is possible. The Perez Molina government has been all about encouraging foreign investment and promoting economic growth but the results have been mixed.

Really makes me wonder how neighboring El Salvador has been able to decrease poverty by 10 percentage points over the last several years with horrible growth rates. Social programs help, of course, as due remittances (which Guatemala also enjoys) but there's something fishy going on.